Technically, this report is going to cover January 2022, but it’s a new year and a new set of reports. That and I’m tired of naming the reports after the previous month, so we’re skipping January and calling this one February.
It’s my website and I’ll change reports up if I want to. (Cue the song). “You would cry, too, if it happened to you…”
Actually, no. There’s no reason to cry this last month. I need a new playlist.
Why Do I Share Publishing Reports?
Last month, my husband looked at the new-and-improved KimberlyCStarr.com (I’d told him about how I’d been removing old, poorly written articles left and right). He got pensive and asked me why I publish our business financials along with the information on what we’re publishing.
Me: “Well, how many people do you know that do this? Build up a portfolio of websites into a business?”
Him: “Well, none actually.”
I pointed him at a few other websites that do this kind of thing, and then he noticed my point. Here’s the short version of that list.
- Project 24
- Jon Dykstra
- Spencer Haws
- Anne Moss
- April of bloggersontherise.com
“You just listed a whole lot of men and companies. And exactly two women.”
Maybe I’m still too new to this game, but most of the “big names” in building a business that uses websites and blogging tend to be dudes.
Actually, no. I’m not “new” to this. I’ve been writing, blogging, copywriting, and being a digital nerd for almost a decade. And I’ve met plenty of women in this field. Most, however, are content to build up a single website or a small business.
That’s why Anne and April are amazing to me. They’re willing to take on the “men’s world” of blogging. And they’re kicking butt.
- Most women bloggers and digital marketers I knew from before my time with Project 24 were ecstatic to earn 6-figures a year. Most never made it to that point, being happy with earning about $1,000 every month.
- I met April in Project 24. She’s currently rocking this digital marketing stuff and earning 5-figures monthly.
- Anne, who I’ve found via the Project 24 forums (and I’d love to chat with in real life) has been earning 6-figures monthly.
Do you see the scale difference?
Now, please know that I’m not disparaging the dudes who do this, too. The dudes themselves are pretty awesome. I’ve been in Project 24 for 30 months now (I like to call it my Project 24+ plan), and it’s been one of the single best investments I’ve made to date.
But it’s a whole lot easier to imagine success when you aren’t the first. Because then, you get to be the one who imagines taking things to the next step.
So I write these reports as a way to not only hold myself accountable to the dozen of you who read this, but also as a way to (one day) inspire another little girl, even if it’s “only” my daughter. And honestly, “just” inspiring my daughter to live her dreams would be a solid win.
What Can I Expect from These Reports?
In the past, my reports covered a lot of really granular details from my publishing empire-in-building. I’m still very much in that empire-building phase, but simply telling you how much I managed to publish and earn every month doesn’t feel as helpful anymore.
Even so, here’s what you can expect to see in my reports:
- Content published
- Traffic
- Revenue
- Patterns, trends, and tidbits I find relevant or want to share
To date, I’d reported revenue as accrued (cash-based accounting). I plan to continue doing that, even though it makes my earnings per thousand visitors (sometimes called “RPM” or “EPMP”) look lower than it does for other folks who report it the same month earned, even if they don’t get paid out for another 30-60 days per the ad network standard payout times.
I also want to share a few business-building tips, tricks, workflows, or other ideas as I get them. There won’t be as many of these, simply because they can be rather involved. But I think having a peek behind the curtain every now and then (provided it’s not a shower curtain and you aren’t trying to reenact any particular Hitchcock movie) is totally fine.
What Does the System Look Like?
My system is based on a mesh of Project 24, April’s systems, and systems Anne Moss has shared on her website yeys.com. April and I have become good friends (she’s an amazing woman), so it’s fun to brainstorm and improve systems together.
*GASP* “But isn’t fraternizing with the enemy a great way to go out of business??”
Um, no. There’s plenty of space online for multiple websites, ideas, businesses, and people. I’ll be fine, thanks.
In any case, here’s the system.
- Find good topics.
- Write the best article possible about the topic to generate natural, organic traffic.
- Build a system to keep doing the above.
- Add in relevant social media platforms to the mix to boost traffic with social media shares.
- Rinse, repeat, and keep going.
The whole social media aspect is both new and old. I’d built up quite a Pinterest account (maybe you found me via that) and had been seeing great traffic from it. Then, I realized it was driving me crazy without giving me any extra benefit.
I was a hamster, and I hated it.
That’s actually what helped me find Project 24. That’s when I started changing the system from “write crap content and focus on amazing pins” to what I have outlined above.
Remember how I said I’d been deleting posts left and right? Yeah. Those.
This new system is more like an automated hamster wheel. One where I can get on or off as I please, and the whole thing keeps going no matter where I am.
As Kuzko so eloquently put it, “BOOM, baby.”
Site Reports
On to the reports, with some heavy influence from Anne Moss. Seriously. I’d love to chat with her for an hour. Maybe on a call with April. We could be the three musketeers of online digital publishing. I’d bring the chocolate.
All Sites
- Total new posts: 23
- Total Sessions: 84,879
- Revenue: $2,070.20
- EPMV: $15.42
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
Getting from $0 to $1,000 per month took me 24 months after joining Project 24.
Getting from $1,000 to $2,000 per month took me 4 months.
Next revenue goal: $3,000 per month. Expected timeline: 2 to 3 months.
Site #1
- Niche: gardening
- Site age: 25 months
- New posts: 16
- Current number of posts: 208
- Projected total posts: 1000s
- Sessions: 43,904
- Revenue: $1,315.46
- EPMV: $19.07
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
This site was my 2nd one from Project 24. This site also has a growing YouTube presence that I’ve loved doing as an experiment in personal growth and all that.
Here’s how it’s grown over time. There were a few blips when the analytics code got deleted by accident, so that was fun.
Okay, so I won’t always share these traffic graphs. Mostly because time is limited, and I’ve got stuff to publish.
Site #2
- Niche: sports
- Site age: 8 months
- New posts: 3
- Current number of posts: 21
- Projected total posts: 250
- Sessions: 277
- Revenue: $2.50
- EPMV: $8.57
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
This is a baby site, only 8 months old. But it’s fun to have new projects, so it is what it is. It’s got some early indicators that the “ghost town” phase is ending, though.
Site #3
- Niche: genealogy
- Site age: 25 months
- New posts: 1
- Current number of posts: 57
- Projected total posts: 200
- Sessions: 6,708
- Revenue: $154.86
- EPMV: $13.50
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
This site is a lot of fun, and it’s got a lot of great potential for things like a membership. We’re exploring those ideas.
Site #4
- Niche: writing, blogging
- Site age: 30+ months
- New posts: 1
- Current number of posts: 39
- Projected total posts: 200
- Sessions: 2,830
- Revenue: $30.12
- EPMV: $6.40
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
Spoiler: this is this site. It’s taken a huge hit over time since I deleted so many articles and posts that got strong social-media-driven traffic.
But spending 10 to 15 hours per week hamster-wheeling it on social media for a few hundred dollars per month VS spending that same amount of time building a portfolio of websites that earns 4X+ more money? Then expanding the team for even faster, more sustainable growth?
I’ll take door #2, thanks. Taking the temporary financial hit on this site was worth it for the financial growth since then. And my mental health is doing loads better because figurative hamster wheels of being stuck are the worst.
Site #5
- Niche: parenting
- Site age: 30+ months
- New posts: 2
- Current number of posts: 105
- Projected total posts: 250
- Sessions: 31,130
- Revenue: $567.26
- EPMV: $11.57
- Montization: Ads + affiliates
Remember how I deleted all those posts from this site? Yeah. I rewrote them and published them on this site. It’s got more traffic with less work, thanks to organic traffic. And, as a result, it’s earning more than double what it ever earned over here.
The system works, y’all. It works. It just doesn’t work overnight.
Note: I do have other sites built, but I’m not publishing content on them until later this year. So I’m not reporting on them until that happens.
